2 Degrees, Flies Planes, Author, Works at NASA. His Age? 17

2 Degrees, Flies Planes, Author, Works at NASA. His Age? 17

Article excerpt

BOSTON * Moshe Kai Cavalin has two college degrees, but he's too
young to vote. He flies airplanes, but he's too young to drive a car
alone.

Life is filled with contrasts for Cavalin, a 17-year-old from San
Gabriel, Calif., who has dashed by major milestones as his age seems
to lag behind. He graduated from community college at age 11. Four
years later, he had a bachelor's in math from the University of
California, Los Angeles.

This year, he started online classes to get a master's in
cybersecurity through the Boston area's Brandeis University. He
decided to postpone that pursuit for a couple of terms, though,
while he helps NASA develop surveillance technology for airplanes
and drones.

Between all that, he's racked up an exhausting list of
extracurricular feats. He just published his second book, drawing on
his experience being bullied and stories he's heard from others. He
plans to have his airplane pilot's license by the year's end. At his
family's home near Los Angeles, he has a trove of trophies from
martial arts tournaments.

Still, Cavalin insists that he's more ordinary than people think.
He credits his parents for years of focused instruction balanced by
the freedom to pick his after-school activities. His eclectic
interests stem from his cultural heritage, he said, with a mother
from Taiwan and a father from Brazil.

"My case isn't that special. It's just a combination of parenting
and motivation and inspiration," he says after a recent shift at
NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif. "I tend
to not compare myself that often to other people. I just try to do
the best I can."

His parents say he was always a quick study. At 4 months, he
pointed to a jet in the sky and said the Chinese word for airplane,
his first word. Cavalin hit the limits of his home schooling after
studying trigonometry at age 7. Then his mom started driving him to
community college.

"I think most people just think he's a genius, they believe it
just comes naturally," said Daniel Judge, a professor of mathematics
who taught Cavalin for two years at East Los Angeles College. "He
actually worked harder than, I think, any other student I've ever
had. …